Title: HeartShip
Author: Amy Jo Cousins
Publisher: Self-Published
Length: 133 Pages
Category: Contemporary, New Adult
At a Glance: So, yeah…super cute and shmoopy. I loved it.
Reviewed By: Jules
Blurb: Benji never meant to catfish a hot college football player in Minnesota when he met a fellow anime fan online. But when @joshfortytwo announces he’s coming to Miami for a spontaneous visit, Benji is pretty sure the left tackle—whatever that is—expects to meet a cute girl in a bikini, not an aging twink hoping to finally get his life together when he finishes massage therapy school.
Josh doesn’t let himself wonder about questions like:
•why don’t you want to ask @princessglitter if she’s a girl?
•why don’t you tell your friends that you can’t hang on Sunday nights because you’ve got a date to watch anime with your new BFF?
•why do you call it a date?
All he knows is that he needs to escape from the stress of having been injured just before the bowl game, and @princessglitter has somehow become his best friend.
But when Josh’s secrets and Benji’s sex appeal smash together for forty-eight scorching hours, they’re going to feel the heat from Miami to Minnesota.
Review: Amy Jo Cousins’ HeartShip was originally written as The Christmas Ship and released in the Wish Come True Christmas anthology. Now expanded to about double its original length, and given a shiny new cover and title, it’s totally worth picking up even if you read the holiday short. This adorable novella is the story of Josh, a sweet college football player from Minnesota, and the boy who stole his heart. Accidentally. 😊 This line cracked me up:
“Holy shit.” Benji stared at the chipping paint on his studio apartment door. “I accidentally catfished a football player.” Fuuuuuck.
Josh is not your stereotypical college jock. Sure, he loves football, and hanging out and drinking beer with the guys. But, he also loves his Sunday night ritual of watching his favorite anime show RWBY, and chatting about the episode with his online buddy, @princessglitter. Josh, or @joshfortytwo, and princessglitter have gotten quite close over the course of their five-month long friendship, though chatting not only about the show but about their lives as well. Princessglitter knows all about Josh’s football injury, and how hard he’s working at his physical therapy and training, and Josh knows how stressed princessglitter is about their upcoming massage therapy exam. In fact, Josh feels like maybe princessglitter knows him better than anyone else does. So, getting away from Minnesota and the depressing quiet of the locker room whenever he walks in, and meeting princessglitter face-to-face, sounds just perfect.
Benji was NOT expecting the news that was waiting for him when he popped open his princessglitter account and read Josh’s message. Dreading Josh’s reaction—Benji is sure that Josh is expecting some blonde Miami beach babe—Benji agrees to meet with him anyway, and directs Josh to a local McDonald’s for the big reveal. Josh isn’t as angry as Benji expects him to be; instead, he seems mostly shell-shocked and confused. Josh is confused when he walks into the McDonald’s and sees Benji, but not really for the reason Benji thinks. It turns out that Josh isn’t as shocked about princessglitter being a guy as Benji worried he would be. Josh had his suspicions…about princessglitter’s gender and about himself. But, after meeting Benji, he gets over any lingering confusion about his sexuality pretty quickly.
…when Benji licked his lips, and then stuck the bottom one out, shiny and pink, and stared up at him hotly, one thing was absolutely clear.
Josh was totally fucking gay.
Josh was gay. And he’d been totally falling for another guy since the summer.
These guys were fantastic, both separately and together. They had great chemistry, and I loved how seamlessly they fell for each other because they had the strong online connection beforehand. The format of the story was also very cool, going back and forth between present day and previous online chats between @princessglitter and @joshfortytwo. Those conversations were very fun to read. I also loved, loved Josh’s best buddies, Gus and Deion, who were so, so supportive of Josh, and then Josh and Benji as a couple.
So, yeah…super cute and shmoopy. I loved it. I’m so glad Amy Jo Counsins decided to expand this story. Check this one out for sure, guys!
You can buy HeartShip here:
[zilla_button url=”http://authl.it/B07251BX6L?d” style=”blue” size=”medium” type=”round” target=”_blank”] Amazon [/zilla_button][zilla_button url=”https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/heartship-amy-jo-cousins/1126264401?ean=2940157598914″ style=”blue” size=”medium” type=”round” target=”_blank”] Barnes & Noble [/zilla_button][zilla_button url=”https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/heartship/id1229241134?mt=11″ style=”blue” size=”medium” type=”round” target=”_blank”] iBooks [/zilla_button][zilla_button url=”https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/heartship” style=”blue” size=”medium” type=”round” target=”_blank”] Kobo [/zilla_button]